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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26465875">Beyond The Veil's Artober 2020 Challenge</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vulpeculara/pseuds/Vulpeculara'>Vulpeculara</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dragon Age Prompt Responses [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age, Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age: Origins</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dragon Age - Freeform, F/M, Gen, Multi, Tags May Change, artober, artober 2020, beyond the Veil, btv-artober</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:27:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,784</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26465875</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vulpeculara/pseuds/Vulpeculara</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>These are mini prompt responses to the Beyond The Veil's Artober Challenge that took place in 2020. BTV is a Discord server. Tags are subject to change until the entire month of October 2020 is over. :) Will include tags at the top of each prompt if they require warnings.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Female Lavellan/Solas, Fenris/Female Hawke</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dragon Age Prompt Responses [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1923964</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Beyond the Veil's Artober Event</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Preface</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hello! I am participating in the <strong>Beyond the Veil's</strong> Discord server's <strong>Artober 2020</strong> Challenge! This is a series of 31 prompts, and I hope I can make it through the whole thing :)</p>
<p>I will try to post a prompt for each corresponding day ON the day, and the prompts will be less than 500 words. I will try to include tags at the top of each prompt if they require warnings, and will tag the entire work correctly at the end of October once everything is written. If I do a doodle, even unrelated to what I wrote but still related to the prompt, I'll try to include it in the work! </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Artober 1 (A1) - Breach</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The prompt today was breach. I've included an art unrelated to the text, but as another response to breach. :D Happy Artober 1st!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>Breach</strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                                                                             </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>Breach</strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He had done everything he could to prepare for the things that could have gone wrong. He had counted every possible scenario in his head.</p>
<p>He had brought things—<em>so many things</em>—to make sure that it would go just as he had planned. Just this once.</p>
<p>He had brought her far into the mountains. A place she had always wanted to go. A place he promised to take her one day.</p>
<p>He had been sure, this time, that if he could have any moment go right in his life, it had to be this one. The Maker surely would have understood. This day, of all days, would  have to go right. It <em>had</em> to. </p>
<p>“Essa,”</p>
<p>He had said.</p>
<p>Her favorite nickname, she once told him.</p>
<p>He had made sure to hold her hand. The pacing had been right.  </p>
<p>The cold snow had dug into his knee, just as he imagined it to.</p>
<p>He had looked into her eyes, just as he practiced. </p>
<p>He really looked in them. He saw her for who she was, and all the parts of her that made her so beautiful.</p>
<p>Those eyes. They were always such beautiful shades of blue. Always full of trust. </p>
<p>Those eyes. They deserved to be looked at by everyone.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I couldn’t imagine anyone by</p>
<p>my side for the rest of</p>
<p>my life. </p>
<p>You make me happier than</p>
<p>a horse in a house made</p>
<p>of hay. </p>
<p>Will you be my wife?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>His hands were shaking. He knew they would shake when the time came.</p>
<p>He had been so nervous. He nearly dropped the golden ring he had spent hours, and many failed attempts, making.  </p>
<p>If only things had gone right. </p>
<p>If only.</p>
<p>They never do. Not in his world. She was the only thing that was ever right. </p>
<p>He had planned for everything, he thought. </p>
<p>Or <em>so</em> he thought.</p>
<p>Of course, he hadn’t planned the end of the world.</p>
<p>How he was <em>such a fool</em> not to! Who wouldn’t have guessed the world would end on this very day?</p>
<p>It was as if the very heavens opposed his question. Just as the words left his lips, a great beam of light took to the sky. </p>
<p>She had no time to answer. Their heads had turned, once at the sky, then to each other. </p>
<p>They both knew something was coming. Something bad. </p>
<p>A loud boom came with so much force that it forced them to the ground like a great wave. </p>
<p>She crawled to him. </p>
<p>He wrapped her in his arms. She would be protected by him. <em>She</em> would not die today.</p>
<p>She squeezed his hand. The tightest she had ever held it. </p>
<p>“Yes. I will be with you for the rest of my life. Please, Donnec, I would want nothing more.”</p>
<p>The world was ending, but</p>
<p> </p>
<p>she was his, and he was hers.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It didn’t matter if the sky was green or ripping apart. They had each other, and as long as they had each other, his world was perfect.  </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. A2 - Dreamer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Artober 2 - Dreamer</p>
<p>Perhaps the drawing is Eleanor grown up :^)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Dreamer</strong>
</p>
<p>  </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>Dreamer</strong>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The first time Eleanor dreamed was miraculous. </p>
<p>She <em>had</em> dreamed before. Dogs chasing her. Being stuck under the raining sky with her lid to protect her from getting wet. Walking with people without faces. Empty, barren fields. </p>
<p>But then she <em>really</em> dreamed. She dreamed in the way no one ever talks about. </p>
<p>She opened her eyes to the same empty, barren fields. A sight she was used to seeing. A sight she’d come to expect. </p>
<p>Not a soul around here. Simply brown grass as far as the eye could see. Grass so short that it didn’t blow with the wind. </p>
<p>A light rain pattered on her shoulders. </p>
<p>She didn’t have her lid. </p>
<p>
  <em>Oh no.</em>
</p>
<p>She would get rained on.</p>
<p>Just for a singular moment, she wished she had even a leaf to protect her.</p>
<p>And there it was. A small, green leaf, crunching in her hands. </p>
<p>She looked at it in disbelief. </p>
<p>Her small prayer, granted.</p>
<p>But she had crushed it. </p>
<p>Was it too much to ask for another leaf? </p>
<p>She held her breath, and she wished again. This time, she held her hand open.</p>
<p>And there it was. A small, green leaf, resting in her palm. </p>
<p>Rain sprinkled on it. It really was there. </p>
<p>She wondered for a moment and wished really hard. </p>
<p>Suddenly, the sky was falling with leaves. Everywhere, as far as the eye could see.</p>
<p>Her eyes widened.</p>
<p>She wondered and wished again.</p>
<p>A small plate of rice appeared at her feet. </p>
<p>A great smile appeared on her face. The rain no longer mattered.</p>
<p>No more hunger. No more begging for food. No more being shooed.</p>
<p>The flowers she talked to, her only friends, could now talk back. </p>
<p>The toy the boy had in the street, could be placed in front of her. </p>
<p>The possibilities were endless. The world was in front of her.</p>
<p>And it was hers and hers alone. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. A21 - Haven</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Haven</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>Ever since she was a girl, Lilly was always made out to be unlike her peers. Her bright hair made her subject to mockery and hair pulling all of her life. Her quiet nature made it worse—people always mistook it as weakness. And to add to it, she could never make up her mind. <br/>And so, her history made her fond of people like her. People who rose against the odds. People who were different…<br/>…People who were unlike their peers. People like Lilly.<br/>It wasn’t a question when the story of the Herald first graced Lilly’s ears. How she provided a safe place for mages. <br/>She, for the first time in her life, immediately decided to follow her, with her closest friends in tow.<br/>Just between the snow-capped mountains resided Haven, an escape for mages like her. <br/>Only now, as their feet got closer to the refuge, her stomach sank deeper with each step.<br/>She pictured a welcoming hug from mages she had never met.<br/>What she got was a place burned to ashes. Bodies laying out in the distance, their faces covered with ash. Buildings still smoldered with embers.<br/>Sidonia let out a gasp. “The Herald… You don’t think she’s…?”<br/>“Dead. Definitely dead,” Toad concluded.<br/>“Shut up!” Lilly interjected suddenly, causing the party to jump. “She’s not dead. She can’t die. She was sent by the Maker.”<br/>“That’s a load of bullshit,” Toad said. “No elf would be sent by the Maker.”<br/>“She fell out of the Fade!” Lilly shouted. “She’s alive. She might not be here, but she’s alive. She saved us, and I will fight for her army.” She looked over her shoulder to her comrades who watched her with grim expressions. “<em>We</em> will fight for her army. We promised we would, remember? No matter what.”<br/>“I don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly seeing an army here, Lilly. Have you noticed that everyone’s dead? Those are Inquisition seals on their armor.” Toad snapped.<br/>Lilly’s foot grazed against something hard. She knelt to the ground and wiped away the ashes. She smiled when she realized it was a pair of shackles. <br/>“They say she was treated like a prisoner when she came through the Fade. Can you imagine shackling the Herald?” She bet the jailer felt pretty stupid now. <br/>“So, what do we do now?” Sidonia asked after heaving a desperate sigh.<br/>“We stay,” Lilly said triumphantly, her mind set like the scar buried in her calf. “She’ll be back for anyone alive. I know she will. We will wait until she comes.”<br/>“How do you know she’s coming, Lil’?” Sidonia questioned. “What if she already came and left? What if no one ever comes?”<br/>“I just know it,” Lilly responded, picking up the shackles in her hands and standing up. She tucked the shackles into her ripped pocket. “We didn’t come all this way for nothing. She will be coming for us, and we will be ready for her, waiting in Haven.”<strong><br/></strong></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This was for prompt number 21 (Haven!). I tried to put it as chapter 21, but I guess for now they'll be out of order T_T</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. A4 - Tranquil</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The world was the world.</p>
<p>It used to be chaotic.</p>
<p>It was only a fact now.</p>
<p>It existed, and that was it. </p>
<p>Just as she existed, and that was it.</p>
<p>Nothing more than existence.</p>
<p>A being to carry out their duties. </p>
<p>Lauren could not recall what it felt like to be the same as the others were, or what it even meant to feel. She knew that she used to.</p>
<p>Not anymore.</p>
<p>That was only a fact. </p>
<p>Her life was different now. Her books thrown out. Her instrument sold. Her paints donated. Her clothes made plain. </p>
<p>She didn’t need them any more.</p>
<p>She didn’t need anything. </p>
<p>Everyday was the same.</p>
<p>She rose everyday, did her work everyday, went to sleep everyday. No day was different from another, no matter what happened.</p>
<p>All the things that once held her back were now tossed. </p>
<p>She was free.</p>
<p>Tranquil.</p>
<p>What did it mean to be tranquil, again?</p>
<p>The afternoon was hot.</p>
<p>Sweat dripped down her forehead. </p>
<p>She left it there. </p>
<p>It did not bother her.</p>
<p>Nothing bothered her.</p>
<p>Left, right, left, right. Back and forth. Dust be gone.</p>
<p>“Lauren!”</p>
<p>Her eyes looked up. </p>
<p>The servant boy. The one who always talked to her when no one else felt the need to. </p>
<p>On horse this time. Trotting by. </p>
<p>Waving at her, a smile on his cheeks. </p>
<p>“I’m going out to the city to get some supplies! Do you need anything?”</p>
<p>She shook her head. “I need nothing.”</p>
<p>“Same old, same old, huh? Well, I was just checking. I’ll be back soon! See you later.”</p>
<p>The horse walked off into the distance, and he looked back at her with another smile as he left, his hand waving all the way.</p>
<p>He always asked, knowing she would have the same answer. </p>
<p>Why did he continue to ask, when it did not matter? When it never would change?</p>
<p>If only for a moment, a hint of something was there.</p>
<p>Deep within her.</p>
<p>
  <em>What is it?</em>
</p>
<p>Gone.</p>
<p>She looked down at the broom in her hands.</p>
<p>Sweeping. That’s what she was doing.</p>
<p>She continued to sweep, and her loop began again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>These are mini prompt responses to the Beyond The Veil's Artober Challenge that took place in 2020. BTV is a Discord server.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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